Intel’s Ticking Atom Bomb

It started somewhat innocently. Cisco released a field notice that there was an issue with some signal clocks on a range of their networking devices. This by itself was a huge issue. There had been rumblings about this issue for a few months. Some proactive replacement of affected devices to test things. Followed by panicked customer visits when the news broke on February 2nd. Cisco looked like they were about to get a black eye.
The big question that arose was whether or not this issue was specific to Cisco devices or if it was an issue that was much bigger. Some investigative work from enterprising folks like Tony Mattke (@tonhe) found that there was a spec document from Intel that listed a specific issue with the Intel Atom C2000 System on Chip (SoC) that caused it to fail to provide clock signal for onboard chips. The more digging that was done, the more dire this issue turned out to be.
Tick, Tick, Tick
Clock signaling is very important in modern electronics. It ensures that all the chips on the board are using the correct timing to process electronic impulses. If the clock signal starts drifting, you start Continue reading

